Think I'm about done buying used records on the net

E-bay sellers wanting to dicker on returns to make me the buyer pay return shipping has seen it's end.
The sellers don't play grade, and grade very generous in their favor.. Each time I go to the post office for a return it's easy $50 worth of my time at minimum. Never say never, but I intend to stick with new stuff from reputable sellers. I'd like to hear others thoughts and experiences from going down this road.

 

eBay Discogs

 

I have never bought a used record online. Just because of your opening statement. I don't even know what a excellent condition to a very good condition.

I know it's very easy to find that hard album you have wanted for a long time on the internet, but I rather find that hard album, hear the album first, then make the judgement if I want to buy it.

 

i have bought a couple of dozen maybe more used lp's either on eBay or discogs and have not gotten "burnt" yet.

 

I have bought probably over 200 used records online and have only had problems with a handful of those purchases, and with the exception of one case, all of those were resolved amicably.

 

Same here, I've been buying online for many years, way over 200 records, with very few problems.

 

As others stated, go to Discogs. I’ve largely had good experience with them. Only one where the cover was in much worse shape than stated but the vinyl was very good.

 

Discogs,bro. I rarely had any problems with them, I don't trust EBay sellers at all for those reasons.

 

I've got 3 discogs orders coming so I hope they're reliable. I just started collecting vinyl. I have a local store that sells on discogs and their stuff is excellent.

 

I've had just as many issues at Discogs, plus with no photos you can't even get a rough idea if their grading is in the ballpark.

 

Wow, never knew people sold vinyl on Ebay. I used Discogs, with overall good results. Occasionally got something incorrectly graded, and the sellers have always taken care of the problem.

 

Like many people have said, use discogs and ask for pictures when buying.

 

Bought many used vinyls on EBay always happy never a serious problem. A few times I wasn't happy but contacted the seller and everything was taken care of immediately.
Sellers were always willing to make it right for me. The pay return postage is a real bummer for the buyer and I agree with the OP.

One thing EBay sellers want is good feedback. Most all sellers take a happy customer very seriously their positive feedback is their key to present and future income.

 

$50 of your time to do a return?

You ain't a cheap date, that's for sure.

 

My occasional on line purchases have been mostly imports via Discogs, typically from Germany because postage costs are reasonable. Very few problems.

 

Are you being serious?

 

eBay is a last resort for me.

Seems that a lot of used records I look at have "only been played once". I'm sure that's true sometimes, but hardly as often as advertised.

 

Discogs. eBay has been good to me when I infrequently but from them. But I’ve also been very careful, which can help.

 

Probably 85% of my used records come from Discogs. I’ve never felt burned enough to leave negative feedback, and never needed to do a return. Twice, out of several hundred times, I’ve asked for a partial refund due to condition being worse than described.

I do think a lot of sellers grade VG+ as NM, but I take that into consideration when purchasing.

 

The description and writing to the seller before buying is always your best friend when it comes to online ordering.

I bought a ton of records off of eBay. I had a few problems recently in which one case involved a lost package and no reply from seller regarding refunds, but none of those instances have caused me to completely abandon online buying. I tend to be a picky buyer so that helps with the sound quality of what I get and the price does matter. If I see a good price, I'll take it. I stay away from VG or lower items unless I judge that the picture looks better than VG (paid off a few times). Buying from sellers that take good pictures, detail the item's flaws, grade conservatively or offer sound clips are sellers I like to do business with.

I also tend stay away from sellers selling "untested items" or items that visibly have poor conditions. There was one exception in which the seller was selling off his entire record collection record by record. He wouldn't grade them, but he assured his buyers that everything was in great condition and he wouldn't list anything considered as poor. He was also a picky buyer. His auctions started at 99 cents and I trusted his word and was able to get at least 30 records from him all at low prices with the company sleeves at most times. He'd even throw in some freebies which also sounded great.

I haven't done as many discogs purchases as I've done eBay, but I like using discogs too. The sellers are more knowledgeable, prices are usually better, there are no auctions so that "steal" may not happen but it also won't have buyers jacking up the prices. Only downside is that there are no pictures from the seller of the item you are buying (some eBay sellers are getting lazy like this and will post their auction with a picture titled "Pictures coming soon" and I also stay away from them). You'd have to message the seller with your email account and request for pictures to be sent there of the record. And better yet, some don't even offer pictures for a $5 record or they won't even respond to the message. Great sellers, right?

Pictures are important since some sellers would just post their record in the wrong record release and when I think I'm getting this record with a certain label, I end up getting a different label than the release with the picture of the label I expected to get. This happened to me I believe once and the label also had writing on it after the description says the record has "clean labels". There's even this one record on discogs that states it's a "Special Rush Reservice edition. No blue 'A' on label", but they post their listing on the release of the record WITH the blue A in the picture and there's a separate release for the Special Rush Reservice.

So always do your research in the description and contact sellers. Also take a look at their return policy.

 

It depends on what your time is worth and how long it takes. For me, it's a 15 minute ride, one-way, to my post office. Then factor in 30 minutes total to 1) email back and forth with the seller, 2) re-package the record, and 3) stand in line at the post office. That's 60 minutes spent so far, and then $5 for return postage. If you buy a lot of records online, and if this happens even 5% of the time (1 out of 20 purchases), it gets annoying and time consuming very quickly.

 

Have never bought a used album off the inter web for the reasons mentioned by the OP. Have always done where I can see and examine before purchase. However, the Discogs site looks interesting......

 

I can completely understand your frustration, even if you could return without problem and without cost. It is very annoying particularly when you pay very good money for some records. Lots of shonks out there probably more than decent ones. Visual grading is just an excuse, I can understand large sellers doing so but often their rating is not even close visually.

I can't agree on your solution, I am generally done with buying new releases too due to a completely different set of problems, for me it seems that I can't win.

I will still buy occasionally new and second hand, more of the latter but endless bad experiences and not many reputable sellers that might have things I want make it very hard, it can be a very expensive exercise.

 

Just like with selling items, I'll just incorporate returns with something else I'm doing.

Minimizes the time spent with my day-to-day tasks.

 

I find it very discouraging buying there. It is bad enough on ebay where occasionally you see good photos of the actual thing you'll be getting and you can still make mistakes. On discogs is just a lottery, in my opinion you can't trust the gradings of a very high percentage of sellers.